KIAT Guru: Engaging communities to improve education in Indonesia

Submitted by Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez
On Thu, 03/16/2017

co-authors: Dewi Susanti

Indonesia successfully reduced its poverty rate[1] over the last two decades. Yet, this growth was accompanied by one of the fastest increases in inequality in East Asia and the Pacific. While the poverty rate in urban areas has fallen to 8.2%, in remote and rural areas it remains around 14%.

This inequality is exacerbated by the persistent poor quality of public services, such as education, in rural and remote areas. While various government initiatives have improved access to education, quality and equity remain major challenges[2] for those in rural and remote areas.

To address these issues, the World Bank has partnered with the government of Indonesia to launch a pilot project called “KIAT Guru[5],” which aims to improve teacher presence, teacher service quality, and student learning outcomes, while enhancing community engagement and participation in remote areas.

“We [have] two different mechanisms. One of them is community empowerment… The community develops a service agreement with schools so they can agree upon the five to seven indicators that they think are a priority,” says Dewi Susanti, Senior Social Development Specialist, who leads the project.

In this video, Dewi Susanti and World Bank Senior Director Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (@Ede_WBG[6]) discuss the KIAT Guru project[5] and the lessons learned from its early stages.